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Abstract

Abstract Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are known to affect plants’ germination and seedling establishment in arid ecosystems, but their ecological role in more mesic climates is not so well-known. We tested the effects of moss-crusted versus uncrusted soils on seed germination dynamics in a temperate pine barren ecosystem. We conducted a 35-day laboratory assay of seed germination on moss-crusted soils versus uncrusted soils from the Albany (NY) Pine Bush Preserve. We tested total seed germination and the number of days to 50% of total germination (T50) of two herbaceous perennial forb species in each soil type. Three and five times more seeds germinated on uncrusted soil than on crusted soil for bush clover (Lespedeza capitata) and wild lupine (Lupinus perennis), respectively. Seeds of both species also germinated approximately 10 days earlier on uncrusted soil than on crusted soil. This study, and others in similar habitats, show that BSCs in mesic climates can influence germination and other early life-history stages of plants. We hope that further study of the interactions between BSCs and vascular plants in mesic climates will contribute to our understanding of the ecology of BSCs outside the arid and semiarid climates where they are more extensively studied.

Author Comment

Formatting changes from last version.

Supplemental Information

Corbin and Gilbert Figure 1 - Study area at Pine Bush Preserve in New York State, indicated by the stars

Figure 2 – Boxplots of (A) total seed germination and (B) number of days to 50% of total germination (T50) for each soil type x plant species combination

The box in each box- and- whiskers plot represents the 25th and 75th percentiles, while the line in the middle of the box is the median (50th percentile). The top and bottom whiskers extend to the most extreme data points that are no more than 1.5 times the interquartile range from the box. The ppen circle is an outliers beyond the whiskers. Total seed germination was lower, and T50 was longer, on crusted soils compared to uncrusted soils. A similar number of seeds germinated for each plant species, but bush clover seeds germinated significantly faster than lupine seeds.

Table 1: Analysis of variance comparing the effects of Soil Type and species and the interaction between the two on total germination and time to 50% of total germination (T50)

Additional Information

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests

Author Contributions

Jessica A. Gilbert conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Jeffrey D. Corbin conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.

Field Study Permissions

The following information was supplied relating to field study approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):

Collection of crusts for our study were permitted by Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

Data Deposition

The following information was supplied regarding data availability:

Data to be submitted to DataDryad.

Funding

This research was made possible by funding from Union College in support of JAG. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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